Email to WI GOP legislator shows Big Oil-ALEC outreach

You need to read nearly to the end of this expose in The New York Times for the Wisconsin connection to the Trumpian rollback of vehicle fuel efficiency standards - - meaning more air pollution and climate change impacts in exchange for oil profiteering - - engineered for Big Oil by ALEC.

The Oil Industry’s Covert Campaign to Rewrite American Car Emissions Rules

On August 6, a Marathon lobbyist, Stephen D. Higley, emailed a Wisconsin state representative an explainer of American fuel economy law. The memo didn’t mince words. 

“It’s a relic,” the memo said, particularly at a time when the United States was “poised to become the largest oil producer in the world.” 

The Wisconsin representative, Mike Kuglitsch, participates in the American Legislative Exchange Council, a Koch-funded group that helps companies write model legislation for state lawmakers to use as a basis for their own laws... 

“Who should decide what cars and trucks consumers should buy, consumers themselves or unelected bureaucrats in Sacramento, California or Washington, D.C.?” the memo sent by Marathon said...

Just days after the emails between Marathon and the Wisconsin lawmaker, some 1,500 state legislators and other officials from across the country gathered in New Orleans to cheer on Elaine Chao, the Secretary of Transportation, at the legislative exchange council’s annual convention. Marathon sponsored the event.

Kuglitsch is from New Berlin

and is chair of the Assembly Energy and Utilities Committee, according to his state website.